Pearl Meyer & Partners, LLC

For more than two decades, Pearl Meyers & Partners
(PM&P) has provided compensation consulting services and
compensation survey data to clients ranging from Fortune 500s to
emerging, high-growth companies and not-for-profits. At a time when
executive pay is under the regulatory microscope and shareholders
are demanding more value for their money, PM&P promises a
comprehensive approach to compensation planning. The firm's
100-plus professionals work with boards and senior management to
create reward strategies and broad-based compensation programs for
employees and sales professionals.

All of the firm's core practices deal with compensation, with
consulting services that range from compensation strategy design to
implementation and communication of pay programs. Capabilities
include compensation philosophy and guiding principles, salary
programs, annual short-term and long-term incentives, value
creation and performance measurement, contracts, severance
agreements, change-in-control arrangements, equity programs,
competitive intelligence and compensation surveys. The firm also
conducts extensive research, ensuring that it can serve as an
up-to-date resource with trustworthy benchmarking.

Winding path to PM&P

PM&P was founded in 1989 and acquired in 2000 by Clark
Consulting. Seven years later, in March 2007, AEGON N.V., a Dutch
life insurance and pension group, bought out Clark Consulting.
Under a special asset exchange agreement between Clark Consulting
and AEGON, PM&P and other divisions that had been part of Clark
Consulting were sold to Clark Wamberg, LLC, an investor group
created to absorb the former Clark Consulting assets made up of
Clark Consulting executives Tom Wamberg, Jim Benson and Ken Kies.
Once the M&A dust settled, in May 2007, David N. Swinford, then
head of PM&P's New York office, succeeded Joseph R. Rich as the
firm's CEO and president.

Lay of the land

Knowing what your competition is paying its executives and
employees is important to keep the right people in the right jobs.
PM&P's compensation survey practice publishes the CHiPS
compensation survey series, managed surveys, as well as custom
surveys. The CHiPS family of surveys are broad studies that provide
data on segments of the employee population, such as recent college
grads, customer-focused positions and, of course, upper-level
executives and managers. Managed surveys look at specialized job
areas, such as scientists and engineers, or salaries within
outsourcing environments. PM&P's custom surveys are usually
designed to tackle a single organization's unique employee
population segments, which may have unique credentials or
backgrounds that would make benchmarking difficult. PM&P also
conducts custom surveys; for example, a company employing a large
number of expatriates, or with positions requiring high skill and
experience, may require a more focused or specialized competitive
assessment. All surveys are available in print and online
formats.

A recognized resource

A longtime provider of compensation information and services,
industry professionals have come to rely on PM&P for its
expertise and advice, which the firm offers via research reports,
articles and white papers, "As We See It" perspective pieces on
industry trends and client alerts, which offer technical advice on
compensation developments in the disclosure, tax and accounting
areas.

PM&P consultants also regularly participate in industry
events and conferences, and are regularly quoted in industry
publications-such as Directorship, Workspan,Compliance Week, Financial Week, Pension
& Benefits Daily and CFO-and in mainstream media,
such as AP, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal,
BusinessWeek, the New York Post, and the
Washington Post.

IN THE NEWS

January 2014

Communication Services Launch

The firm announced that Sharon Podstupka, a long-time specialist
in the strategic communication of complex executive compensation
programs to key internal and external stakeholders, joined the firm
as a Vice President in its New York office. In conjunction
with this strategic hire, the firm also launched a new suite of
executive communication services to help clients develop executive
compensation communication strategies based on their unique
business and leadership development strategies and pay program
designs.

The inaugural report of WomenCorporateDirectors' Thought
Leadership Council addresses five key challenges for Boards seeking
to more directly align their executive compensation practices with
their key business strategies. Pearl Meyer & Partners
chaired the report Going Beyond Best Practices: The Role of the
Board in Effectively Motivating and Rewarding Executivesand is
a permanent member of the newly formed Council.

Our latest article, The Compensation Committee Agenda:
Raising the Bar, focuses on specific and practical
recommendations for how Compensation Committees can get there by
closely addressing five related fundamentals of good pay design and
governance.

Pearl Meyer & Partners entered into a relationship with the
Harvard Law School for Corporate Governance. President and
CEO, David Swinford was appointed to the Program on Corporate
Governance Advisory Board. The Program on Corporate
Governance seeks to foster research and discussion by individuals
holding a wide range of views on corporate governance issues.